Motherhood. If you’ve got kids, you know that well…greys happen. Poop happens. Late night glasses of wine happens.

Often times my friends say to me, “Oh Diana I don’t know how you do it.” I really feel like telling them that I have no friggin idea how I do it all: the crafting, the art, the kids, dinner, and keeping the house from looking like a tornado went through it.

When I first had my daughter Dakota, I remember my friend Lisa telling me, “Diana motherhood is sometimes about survival. Just do what you can to not go insane.”

So, herein, are a few tips from yours truly, on how to survive motherhood without losing your mind.

Prioritize

Every person has different priorities in life, weather it be making art, playing sports, or working out. The thing about being a mom, is that you must learn to prioritize. You need to set priorities for yourself. Make the things that matter to you, matter in your life by prioritizing.

Prioritize. Make a list of the things that must absolutely get done throughout the day, and go by that.

Lists are a great way to prioritize and know what it is that needs to be in your life on any given day. So make lists. Put together a list of things that really do need to get done, including that thing that’s important to you weather it be yoga, art, sports or whatever.

Take Out Time

Once you set those priorities, you need to then take out time in your day to do them. Sure you’re going to do the cooking and the cleaning and the caring of children. Of course. But make sure that you take out time for the things that matter to you, besides the household stuff. For me, that means art. I LOVE being creative and I LOVE the process of making art, painting, crocheting, and knitting. I LOVE it. So, I set time side for it. I make sure that it is in my life. It sounds easy enough. And it is actually just as easy as you setting out time for it. “I don’t have time.” Make time. Nap time, bed time, early morning before they wake up…but just make time.

Making time for you is just as important and caring for the ones you love. Why? Because when mommy is taken care of, she’s ready to care for others and put her best foot forward. Because without taking time for yourself, what do you have? You have yourself giving on a daily basis, tired and worn out and burn out quickly ensues. So avoid that, by taking time for yourself.

Making time, means finding the time of day that works best for you, weather it be in the morning before your little ones wake up, or in the evening, at bed time. It’s really up to you. Just make time. Make it a ritualistic thing. Every night when my little ones go to sleep, I go to the kitchen to grab a snack, turn on my spotify music player, and wip out my art supplies. That’s my ritual. I am telling the universe and myself that I’m now going to make art. I make it a routine so that I always stick to it. I do it every day, because taking time for my art is just as important to me as doing yoga or meditating.

Take Good Care

Take care of your body and your health by eating well. It seems like a silly thing, but for me, eating the right foods really affect my mood and my outlook on life, and stuff. So if I eat well, I feel well.

Try to make eating well a daily thing, sort of like the addict. The addict’s mantra is “just for today”. So “just for today” choose to eat the right foods. “Just for today” eat less sugar. If you live by this, you’ll find it easier to eat right, and in eating right, you feel better and you set a positive example for your children and those around you.

Know When to Hand Them Over

Sometimes as a mother and a stay at home mom, it becomes difficult to really know when to hand them over to someone and just walk away for a few minutes. I’m the mommy. I shouldn’t need to right? Wrong. It is SO important that you hand them over to daddy or abuela (grandma) for even a couple hours. Hand them over, then go grab a cup of coffee. Go out with a friend, or just sit and write, knit, or read. You will be amazed what a few hours will do for you. Take out the time to hand them over, and do NOT feel guilty. NO GUILT is ALLOWED. Do you hear me? Hand them over. Go on a date with daddy, while abuela cares for them, or go meet with your knitting group while daddy takes care of them. But you must do this. You must.

Involve them

The one thing that people find interesting about me and my daughter is how much she also loves art. The reason for this is a simple story.

When my daughter was born, she raised in me the need to really pursue my creativity even more. I wanted to show her how far she could go in life, by going far myself. So I started a blog, a bit after she was born.

I started making art more. When she was little it didn’t matter. I would make stuff while she was asleep napping. Then, she got to an age where she didn’t nap that much.

I found her grabbing her little yellow kid’s chair, and pulling it up to my desk, to look at what I was doing. So in order to survive motherhood, and have time for my art, I decided to share my paints with her, and give her some paper. So when I’d be working on a card, or a scrapbook or whatever, she’d be painting next to me. So that way, I was involving her in what I was doing, and taking time out for me.

So involve your kids in the thing you love, wether it be yoga, art, sports, or whatever. Kids love to do the thing that mommy loves to do. It’s also a great way to instill that in them. So in this way, you’re creating positive memories, and also instilling something great in them, that they will carry into adulthood.

So that’s that. Those are my tips for surviving motherhood without going insane. Do you have any tips for motherhood survival?

I know I said I was going to add pics of Dharma. I’ll just make another page for her.

My personal favorite is the little fortune there. Neat, right?

The post card is from a friend’s album release thingamajig. The drawing is my husband’s from when we were dating. I saved all the letters and pictures he ever drew and wrote to me.

Pics from when we were dating. If he knew I was posting them, he’d be a little peaved. And yeah, obviously I’ve got a yen for eyeshadow.

This last page isn’t finished. The first pic, with the man holding a protest sign is there, because I love it. This guy is at a demonstration at Museum mile. If you don’t live in New York City (or the five boroughs) and don’t know what that is, it’s a part of a street in manhattan that houses a bunch of museums.

Anyway, museums are notoriously racist places to work in, and also tend to underpay and overwork their employees. They pile on more and more work for you, while not giving their employees raises. The vacation time is accrued so unless you NEVER call in sick, you will probably never be able to take two weeks vacation (because vacation time is the same as sick time). Anyway, the picture is attached to an article that was in a newspaper I was reading, that spoke about the injustices that go on in museums, and that is why this man, and the lot behind him, are protesting.

So that’s my book so far. Do you like it?

Sometimes I design for companies through a team, or through the aforementioned goodies that are sent to me in the mail.

This year though, I have the awesome pleasure of being on the design team for a really great company called “Clearsnap”.

Pretty snazzy picture, don’t you think?

I have to say, I feel blessed by the universe and the sky above, for allowing me to be on the design team with people like my friend, Lisa Kettell. So awesome.

You can read the intros HERE.

With that, they sent me a lovely parcel with all kinds of crafty goodness. I put it all away in my neat and finally organized art supply closet (more on that later), but managed to snap a few pics:

If you know me, you know that I lurve altoid tins and small boxes.

Rolling stamp thingies! And there’s an ink pad that goes on there for easy stamping! Cool. Very cool.

YES. I love shimmer sprays!

So many fun goodies to play with! They sent me more things too. I got dye inks, pigment inks, embossing inks and powder, rubber stamps, and so many other things to play with. I’m so excited to show you how I use them all.

He’s done in watercolor and is a work in progress. I painted him in my art journal. He’s not perfect, because he’s a prototype for a forthcoming project.

So that’s that. I’m cleaning my closet today. This of course, is because it is a sheer and utter mess. I am ashamed at how messy it is. I have to purge. It is so painful to purge art or craft supplies. Really. I keep seeing the potential in things, and delight in finding supplies I had long forgotten about. Sad, really. LOL.

My five year old is sick today. She has an ear infection. It reminds me of when I was a little girl. I had an ear infection that got worse and I had to get some sort of surgury. I cannot tell you what was wrong with me because I only know what the doctor told me, and that was that I had some smurfs in my ear that she had to take out.

I.was.terrified. I did NOT want surgery at such a young age and I convinced myself that I had the magic powers to heal myself, and decided that I was going to heal myself and that the smurfs would in fact be packing their bags and leaving.

The next day, I went to the doctor’s office, and she informed me that I had no more smurfs in my ear. My mother choked it up to a miracle of god, while I imagined myself having these amazing magic powers. And who knows, maybe it was a little of both, right?

Anyway, yes. I bought some clothing. I had to force myself to stay away from Soho, which is where I normally buy art supplies. Instead I stayed in Flatbush, Brooklyn (near brooklyn college, if you want to know) so that I can buy some clothing.

But…oh Target. I mean, I try not to buy a lot of clothing mostly for the fact that I don’t want to support clothing that is made in sweat shops or by child labor. My point, yes I’m sorry. I do have one. I went to target, which as you know, does carry a small selection of scrapbooking supplies. This of course, means I HAD to buy something. HAD to. So, I bought a smash book. I started the first page. Want to see?

This is the first page. It’s not finished. It’s sort of a “dedication” page. I have to print out a picture of baby Dharma and add her there too. Everything I do in my life, my art, my crafts, my blog…all of it is in dedication to my daughters who inspire me and my husband who is the reason why I even started painting at all. I do it all because of my family.

Anyway, that’s the sappiness for the day. I’m happy that I finally found a place to put all the fashion magazine clippings and pictures of rooms I love, and nail polish I want, etc.

And I’ll be posting updates when I have something to update you on. My intention for this book, is to be an inspiration or “look book” as it is called in fashion. I’m really inspired by fashion, something fierce. So that’s that.

Happy mother’s day to all of you moms who know what it’s like to put yourself last and your tiny mini-me’s first.

My husband’s birthday was last week, and this is what my daughter made for him, for his birthday.

The box is a “crafty chica” wooden frame which was painted up with her kid’s paints. That picture inside is old, but is my husband’s favorite picture of her. Then, there’s the flowers she picked, and a crystal that was swiped from mommy.

Happy birthday daddy. You may a stubborn man, but you’re MY stubborn man.

Pretty, right? I spun a total of 220 yards. One hank is 120, and one is 100 yards. I’ve got this for sale, if you want it to be yours.

Yesterday, I cried

yesterday when life was grey

yesterday when I lived alone

rag and bone

alone, just me and my spit

yesterday, I cried

envisioning a life free from my sin

free from those who choose

to bruise

my heart

yesterday I cried

alone in the world

I was alone

with over a thousand humans who claim my

mitochondrial DNA, they

left me for dead

alone

abandoned

Yesterday I cried

but today

I rejoice

I rejoice while I hold my daughters in my arm

one on my back

one in the front

I rejoice at over a decade with my true love

yesterday I cried

but today

I rejoice